The great 1066 confrontation between Saxons and Normans took place not at Hastings as its common name would have you believe, but on unpopulated terrain some miles to the north-west. The Conqueror decided that an abbey should be built on the site in commemoration of his great victory, and that the altar of the abbey church should rise over the very spot at which Harold fell.

 

When Henry VIII declared war on the wealthy religious institutions Battle Abbey was given to Sir Anthony Browne, who dismantled it. Stones from the ruins were used in local buildings and especially in Brown's new house - now a school in the grounds. The church was destroyed, but a stone marks the location of the high altar.

 

In the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, a little to the east, is the tomb of a remarkable man. Isaac Ingall was butler at the Abbey for all of 95 years, and died in 1798 at the age of 120.

 

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Battle Abbey

 

 

 

 

 

 

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